Bush is Blackmailing the National Security of Every American

For political gain and to extend his unprecedented grab for unilateral power at odds with our Constitution, Bush is blackmailing the national security interests of the United States.

This is not an alarmist claim by BuzzFlash; it is a fact.

The President of the United States is holding the security of every American as a hostage in a game of chicken.

For more years than we can remember, the Geneva Convention has guided the conduct of civilized nations in matters of war. America has abided by the treaty without dissent or difficulty. In fact, we prided ourselves on implementing the standards spelled out by the Geneva Convention for the treatment of prisoners of war.

But Bush is now saying, that suddenly for him, the Geneva Conventions do not provide "clarity." This, of course, is the Rovia/Luntz use of framing to make a betrayal of the American people by the Bush Administration look like a reasonable act. The Geneva Conventions have provided uncontested "clarity" through multiple Republican and Democratic administrations, but all of a sudden they have become "vague" to Bush, even though not a word in them has been changed.

So Bush went to Capitol Hill this past week -- as the Washington Post said in an editorial -- as the first president of the United States to lobby for torture.

Here is where the blackmailing of our national security comes in – and for anyone to blackmail this nation in regards to our safety is a criminal offense.

Bush is threatening to close up the CIA unit involved with terrorist interrogations if he doesn’t get the authority to thumb his nose at the Geneva Conventions. In short, he is blackmailing America.

He is telling us that he will not allow the CIA to interrogate prisoners -- within the bounds of the Geneva Convention -- who might yield information, unless they can be tortured. Bush is thus blackmailing all the residents of America by telling us that he will shut the CIA out of all detainee information gathering unless he can use barbaric methods.

This is isn’t a threat being made against Osama bin Laden. This is Bush threatening the American people, and endangering our lives.

It is one thing to be an immoral incompetent. It is another to side with anyone who would do America harm by blackmailing the American public about an issue that has never been a problem in all previous administrations – and that makes all of them -- that have abided by the Geneva Convention.

When a president of the United States blackmails the citizens of his own nation, it is time for him to be impeached and tried for high crimes and misdemeanors.

Bush is brutally attacking the likes of Colin Powell and John McCain on this issue -- men who actually know combat -- and don’t wish to see our soldiers subjected to the torture that Bush wants to continue using. Of course, how could we ask enemies to abide by the Geneva Convention, when Bush is abandoning it in the name of torture?

In this case, the blackmail Bush is using against the American people is just flat out treason.